Striving for Freedom
by PsychoFeline
Summary: When Ignis is captured by humans and forced to fight for entertainment, him, Kuro, Lux, and Umbra must come together and find a way to escape before they have to turn against each other, or worse yet, face the unstoppable Validus. My first story so please excuse any newbiness!


_ "It's cold… too cold…"_

This single thought passed through Ignis's head. He couldn't see, he couldn't move, and the ground was hard and uncomfortable. The last thing he remembered was walking in Petalburg Woods and suddenly… he couldn't remember what happened next. As he tried to recall what could have caused this, a sudden bump startled him. It felt like he was moving. Yes, definitely moving. Faintly he could hear a strange noise. It sounded like some sort of language, but he couldn't tell what kind. It certainly didn't sound like a Pokémon. He could catch some of the words, though. Blaziken. He heard that one used a lot. That scared him. Ignis was a Blaziken! Were the voices talking about him? He didn't know. He was getting lightheaded, though. He was passing out. He was left at the mercy of the voices.

When he woke up later, Ignis was greeted by the voices once more. Only this time, he was fully conscious, and finally had a chance to take in his surroundings. He was in a small, square compartment of sorts that appeared to be made of metal. At the back, two solid flaps were flung open, and strange, featherless creatures were standing at the opening. He had seen these creatures before; sometimes they roamed the woods with Pokémon at their sides. Those ones hadn't been as scary, though. These ones certainly didn't have welcoming looks on their oddly flat faces.

He tried to get up and run, but a rough, brown vine tethered his arms and legs. Ignis flailed wildly, trying to escape, but no success came to him. The creatures were in the metal box now, closing in on him. "_This is it, I'm done_!" He thought. Three of them came to Ignis and lifted him, holding him too tight for any movement.

They carried him out and threw him into a new compartment. He landed in a quite ungraceful manner. A fourth creature came in, then, and undid the vines, but before Ignis could lash out at it the strange thing was back out again. Clearly it knew he was not happy in his current state. They closed up his compartment quickly and then at once all five of the creature were out of the room.

It was a rather large room, and as Ignis took everything in he realized many other Pokémon were in similar conditions. He drew his breath in sharply. Were all of these Pokémon taken like him?

"That makes thirty-two," a voice said. He sighed gratefully: it was a real voice, one he could understand.

"Hello?" Ignis said, turning to the compartment beside him. An Absol sat inside. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Nothing good, that's for sure," it replied. "You're thirty-two. The tournament's ready now." _Tournament_? That was a new word.

"What's ready now? Wait, are we going to die here!"

The Absol laughed. "Worse. In fact, if you get away from the humans' torment, I'll be your personal servant for life!" He laughed some more, shooting Ignis glances of mockery.

"Kuro, stop it! Don't you see? He's a _Blaziken_. He has more of a chance than any of us," a new voice said hopefully. He looked beyond Kuro's cage, and sure enough, a Gardevoir was looking at him with wide eyes.

"Thanks, but I think that's an overstatement. Just a glance around here already makes me feel tiny in comparison," Ignis said shyly. It was true. As he looked around the room, he couldn't recognize some of the Pokémon, but they all looked quite powerful. Though, even if he included himself there were only thirty-one. "_Let's see, who's here. Me, Kuro, the Gardevoir, Dodrio, Gengar, Salamence, Zapdos, and Scizor. I suppose that's only eight. I'll count the rest later_."

"Overstatement?" The Pokémon sounded genuinely shocked. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon. My name's Lux, and, if you couldn't tell, my friend here is Kuro." The Absol nodded in acknowledgment.

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I only wish it wasn't under these circumstances. The name's Ignis." He smiled brightly. With Lux so close to him maybe he could last here, if only for a while. "So, tell me about this 'tournament,' and why those creatures are keeping us here."

"Thought you'd never ask," Kuro said, getting up. "You see, humans-the things that brought you here-like to watch us fight. So they put us in the little cages until they want to see us. Of course, the only time they see us is when we're beating the life out of each other. And when we're all used up, when we just can't take another step, they patch us up and put us through the whole cycle again. It's nothing like how Trainers work, though in my opinion it's not much better." Kuro wrinkled his nose in disgust. Ignis wondered how many of these cycles the Absol had been through. A lot? He certainly seemed to be in the know.

"Is there anything else you could tell me?" he pushed on.

"Plenty, but I'm tired right now. Why you were brought in so late I'll never know," as he said this Kuro opened his mouth in a wide yawn. "When the Humans come you'll know it's morning. Until then, I'm going to sleep." Ignis watched in dismay as his eyes closed and his breathing slowed. There was so much to learn! He needed that stubborn old Absol to explain all this craziness to him, not fall asleep.

"Don't worry," Lux said softly. "Kuro can be difficult, but he's good at heart. Just give him a chance. I'm sure he'll come to in the morning. But for now, I'm tired too. Sorry, I'd love to talk, I really would, but I just can't stay awake." She sighed quietly and sat down, her eyes shutting slowly. No matter what Kuro said, Ignis could not possibly imagine this gentle Pokémon battling fiercely. Was this really his new life? Fighting something that normally didn't even like to inflict harm?

Ignis couldn't sleep that night, even if he didn't really even know whether it was night or day. Worried thoughts clouded his mind, and he was so confused. He didn't want to live here the rest of his life, fighting for human entertainment. It scared him. Some of the Pokémon in here could maul him. And, if what Kuro had said was true, he would be healed so people could watch him be mauled again! If he was going to be taken he might as well do something productive. He didn't like this one bit.

"_Psst_, hey," a voice said suddenly.

"M-me?" Ignis stuttered.

"No, the guy next to you. _Yes_ you!" It replied impatiently. He looked closer at the Pokémon. It was the Gengar from earlier. It's red eyes shined in the darkness, but he wasn't very menacing. A round stone hung from his neck on a thin, black chain. "I'm assuming you can't sleep?"

Ignis nodded. "Yeah. Frankly, I'm terrified. Are you, too?"

"Nah," he said nonchalantly. "I just don't sleep a lot. My name's Umbra. Let me clarify: _Umbra_, not _Umbreon_." Umbra sounded irritated, like Pokémon made that mistake a lot. He himself would have to try not to do that.

"I'm Ignis," he said, "from Petalburg Woods."

"Lavender Town," Umbra replied. "It was an… okay place. I mean, if you like Marowak. It was certainly better than here, though." He sighed, which only made Ignis sadder. It reminded him of how homesick he was. Suddenly he was a lot more tired. He lied down on the hard, grey floor.

As he closed his eyes, he mulled over what Kuro had said, but after a short while he was asleep.

Ignis was woken up by several scuffling noises later. He got up and rubbed his eyes. He'd been told that the humans would come in the morning, so it must've been morning. He could hear the bars of their containers opening and closing noisily. Beside him Kuro was already awake, swishing his black tail. He was eyeing a human who was coming around with a giant bag. The bag made crinkling sounds whenever it was moved, and Ignis wondered what could be inside of it. It wasn't long before the bag-human came to his side of the room. It reached the bag through the bars and poured something round and brown into the Pokémons' bowls. It came over to Ignis and put some in his bowl, too.

"Kuro, what _is_ this stuff?" He asked curiously.

"Food," he replied, but the Absol looked reluctant to eat it himself. Ignis inspected the bowl carefully. It certainly didn't look like food, and it didn't smell like it, either. But, as he swept his gaze across the area, everyone seemed to be eating it. Even Umbra was eating, though it was one piece at a time and a look of disgust was spread on his face.

He took a piece for himself and put it slowly in his mouth. Immediately he spat it out. "That's not food!" He cried indignantly.

"Maybe not, but you'll starve if you don't eat it." Ignis looked up. Across the room a Salamence was giving him a hard stare. His legs and neck were chained tightly to the ground, and he looked frustrated to a high degree. "_Even humans must know not to toy with a Salamence,_" he thought with a shiver.

"I, uh, okay. My name's-"

"Ignis, I know. I'm not deaf over here," the Dragon-type growled. "My name is Drak. I placed second here once." He guessed that Drak must've been through at least one tournament, then.

"That's pretty impressive, out of thirty-two at least," he noted. "Who beat you?"

"Validus," he spat. Drak's face had such a look of fury on it now that Ignis thought twice about asking who Validus was. "This year, though. This year I swear to Groudon…" He got back down and began eating the disgusting food, mumbling curses and insults under his breath.

"Don't listen to him," Kuro said in as close to a playful tone an Absol could get. "No one has ever beaten Validus. Second is basically first here."

"Poor Validus," Lux said solemnly. "He's been here longer than any of us."

"_But who_ is _Validus?!_" Ignis thought. "_Is he the thirty-second Pokemon I missed?_" A loud clanging sound interrupted his thoughts. A human was standing at the entrance. In one hand were several chains, presumably for leashes. In the other hand was a long, flat stick that buzzed. Was he here to take them home? Or the opposite?

"Great," Umbra moaned, "training day has finally come."


End file.
